I Got a Tattoo and Accidentally Felt My Feelings

This work didn’t start in a classroom, it started in an emergency room and continued in a tattoo shop. I wish it started in a classroom, that sounds much nicer.

I started down this path when I was 26 and struggling with intense panic attacks that no doctor could fully explain. I spent so many nights in the ER, sedated and sent home, only to come back days later in the same state of panic. 

One night, I hit my breaking point. I was in the ER again and I looked at the nurse and said, “I can’t live like this anymore.”

The room went quiet. Everyone around me just... stopped. The nurse leaned in and asked, “Are you feeling suicidal?”

I said, “I don’t know what that feels like. All I know is I can’t keep living like this.” 

After months of inconclusive tests, I was left with three options:

Opt 1: Do nothing and keep going to the ER for sedation, living in a cycle of panic and being put to sleep. 

Opt 2: Open-heart surgery, they wanted to shock up my heart to stop it and then shock it again to restart it with the hopes my spiked heart-rate panic attacks would end.

Opt. 3: A daily cocktail of anxiety and depression medication.

I chose door #3. “3! Pick number 3, my lord!” (Sorry if you don’t get the Shrek reference, get cultured here.)

I stayed on the meds for the next four years, until I was 30. Around the same time I got a tattoo. I had just lost both of my parents unexpectedly, only seven months apart. That tattoo was for them and it marked the first time I had truly felt something in a long time. Although it was physical pain caused by the tattoo gun, it was a feeling!

Sitting in the chair, I realized how numb I’d become. The medication I had been on for years didn’t only mute panic attacks, it had muted everything. It muted me.

I immediately quit taking the meds cold-turkey, my doctor was not a fan of that choice. I went to a therapist and told her, “I don’t really have much to say except that both of my parents died seven months ago, and I feel like if someone goes through that, they should probably go to therapy.”

That moment started a deeper search. I explored all kinds of healing: traditional therapy, hypnotherapy, and more. 

Eventually, I was diagnosed with C-PTSD.

While I was going through all of that as a client, I also went back to school to understand the science behind what was happening to me. What I kept coming back to was self-awareness, my ability to truly hear and see myself.

Now, I use what I’ve learned to help others do the same. My method blends neuroscience, hypnotherapy, and life coaching to support real transformation in a grounded, practical way.

I haven’t had a panic attack in over five years. I’ve been medication-free and out of therapy and I’ve never felt more connected to myself.

Self-awareness is the bridge forward. Visualization is the tool to build that bridge.

If you’re curious whether this work is right for you, let’s connect.